California Highway Patrol at Laguna Seca Hot

California Highway Patrol

California Highway Patrol were in attendance at Laguna Seca for the MotoGP / AMA.  Their booth included police bikes, a Highway Patrol Leather suit, a patrol car and a motorcycle simulator that they use in the training.

I tried my hand at the simulator and was surprised at how realistic it was.  The pedals, handlebars, brakes and signals were all exactly the same as on an actual bike and these controlled a motorcycle on the computer screen.  Maneuvering the motorcycle through a city course felt quite real, so when a truck slammed on its brakes and I crashed, it actually was too realistic for my own comfort.  The program scored your driving skills and reactions to different situations such as people walking out in front of you, someone braking hard and cars turning in your path.  The program actually determined how hard you had to brake, the speed that you traveled through the different situations and how you handled each hazard.   You can see my scoring below.

California uses this program to analyze a rider’s skills in normal traffic conditions, then they adjust their training program to help you in the areas that you show weaknesses.  You will see that my speed caused a lot of my lower scores and inability to react in time to different dangers.  The program was pretty accurate because I do tend to ride at a higher speed.  This made me realize that although I’ve been lucky so far, if something unexpected does happen, a higher speed does not allow you enough time to react accordingly to avoid unsafe situations.

I thought it was a great program and would like to see this training tool in many more states.